The Seven Dials Mystery (Superintendent Battle 2)

“Another young lady; she declines to give her name, sir, but says her business is important.”

Jimmy stared at him.

“This is damned odd, Stevens. Damned odd. Look here, what time did I come home last night?”

“Just upon five o’clock, sir.”

“And was I—er—how was I?”

“Just a little cheerful, sir—nothing more. Inclined to sing ‘Rule Britannia.’ ”

“What an extraordinary thing,” said Jimmy. “ ‘Rule Britannia,’ eh? I cannot imagine myself in a sober state ever singing ‘Rule Britannia.’ Some latent patriotism must have emerged under the stimulus of—er—just a couple too many. I was celebrating at the ‘Mustard and Cress,’ I remember. Not nearly such an innocent spot as it sounds, Stevens.” He paused. “I was wondering—”

“Yes, sir?”

“I was wondering whether under the aforementioned stimulus I had put an advertisement in a newspaper asking for a nursery governess or something of that sort.”

Stevens coughed.

“Two girls turning up. It looks odd. I shall eschew the ‘Mustard and Cress’ in future. That’s a good word, Stevens—eschew—I met it in a crossword the other day and took a fancy to it.”

Whilst he was talking Jimmy was rapidly apparelling himself. At the end of ten minutes he was ready to face his unknown guests. As he opened the door of his sitting room the first person he saw was a dark, slim girl who was totally unknown to him. She was standing by the mantelpiece, leaning against it. Then his glance went on to the big leather-covered armchair, and his heart missed a beat. Loraine!

It was she who rose and spoke first a little nervously.

“You must be very surprised to see me. But I had to come. I’ll explain in a minute. This is Lady Eileen Brent.”

“Bundle—that’s what I’m usually known as. You’ve probably heard of me from Bill Eversleigh.”

“Oh, rather, of course I have,” said Jimmy, endeavouring to cope with the situation. “I say, do sit down and let’s have a cocktail or something.”

Both girls declined.

“As a matter of fact,” continued Jimmy, “I’m only just out of bed.”

“That’s what Bill said,” remarked Bundle. “I told him I was coming round to see you, and he said you wouldn’t be up.”

“Well, I’m up now” said Jimmy encouragingly.

“It’s about Gerry,” said Loraine. “And now about Ronny—”

“What do you mean by ‘and now about Ronny?’ ”

“He was shot yesterday.”

“What?” cried Jimmy.

Bundle told her story for the second time. Jimmy listened like a man in a dream.

“Old Ronny—shot,” he murmured. “What is this damned business?”

He sat down on the edge of a chair, thinking for a minute or two, and then spoke in a quiet, level voice.

“There’s something I think I ought to tell you.”

“Yes,” said Bundle encouragingly.

“It was on the day Gerry Wade died. On the way over to break the news to you”—he nodded at Loraine—“in the car Ronny said something to me. That is to say, he started to tell me something. There was something he wanted to tell me, and he began about it, and then he said he was bound by a promise and couldn’t go on.”

“Bound by a promise,” said Loraine thoughtfully.

“That’s what he said. Naturally I didn’t press him after that. But he was odd—damned odd—all through. I got the impression then that he suspected—well, foul play. I thought he’d tell the doctor so. But no, not even a hint. So I thought I’d been mistaken. And afterwards, with the evidence and all—well, it seemed such a very clear case. I thought my suspicions had been all bosh.”

“But you think Ronny still suspected?” asked Bundle.

Jimmy nodded.

“That’s what I think now. Why, none of us have seen anything of him since. I believe he was playing a lone hand—trying to find out the truth about Gerry’s death, and what’s more, I believe he did find out. That’s why the devils shot him. And then he tried to send word to me, but could only get out those two words.”

“Seven Dials,” said Bundle, and shivered a little.

“Seven Dials,” said Jimmy gravely. “At any rate we’ve got that to go on with.”

Bundle turned to Loraine.

“You were just going to tell me—”

“Oh! yes. First, about the letter.” She spoke to Jimmy. “Gerry left a letter. Lady Eileen—”

“Bundle.”

“Bundle found it.” She explained the circumstances in a few words.

Jimmy listened, keenly interested. This was the first he had heard of the letter. Loraine took it from her bag and handed it to him. He read it, then looked across at her.

“This is where you can help us. What was it Gerry wanted you to forget?”

Loraine’s brows wrinkled a little in perplexity.

“It’s so hard to remember exactly now. I opened a letter of Gerry’s by mistake. It was written on cheap sort of paper, I remember, and very illiterate handwriting. It had some address in Seven Dials at the head of it. I realized it wasn’t for me, so I put it back in the envelope without reading it.”

“Sure?” asked Jimmy very gently.

Loraine laughed for the first time.

“I know what you think, and I admit that women are curious. But, you see, this didn’t even look interesting. It was a kind of list of names and dates.”

“Names and dates,” said Jimmy thoughtfully.

“Gerry didn’t seem to mind much,” continued Loraine. “He laughed. He asked me if I had ever heard of the Mafia, and then said it would be queer if a society like the Mafia started in England—but that that kind of secret society didn’t take on much with English people. ‘Our criminals,’ he said, ‘haven’t got a picturesque imagination.’ ”

Jimmy pursued up his lips into a whistle.

“I’m beginning to see,” he said. “Seven Dials must be the headquarters for some secret society. As he says in his letter to you. He thought it rather a joke to start with. But evidently it wasn’t a joke—he says as much. And there’s something else: his anxiety that you should forget what he’s told you. There can be only one reason for that—if that society suspected that you had any knowledge of its activity, you too would be in danger. Gerald realized the peril, and he was terribly anxious—for you.”

He stopped, then he went on quietly:

“I rather fancy that we’re all going to be in danger—if we go on with this.”

“If—?” cried Bundle indignantly.

“I’m talking of you two. It’s different for me. I was poor old Ronny’s pal.” He looked at Bundle. “You’ve done your bit. You’ve delivered the message he sent me. No; for God’s sake keep out of it, you and Loraine.”

Bundle looked questioningly at the other girl. Her own mind was definitely made up, but she gave no indication of it just then. She had no wish to push Loraine Wade into a dangerous undertaking.

But Loraine’s small face was alight at once with indignation.

“You say that! Do you think for one minute I’d be contented to keep out of it—when they killed Gerry—my own dear Gerry, the best and dearest and kindest brother any girl ever had. The only person belonging to me I had in the whole world!”

Jimmy cleared his throat uncomfortably. Loraine, he thought, was wonderful; simply wonderful.

“Look here,” he said awkwardly. “You mustn’t say that. About being alone in the world—all that rot. You’ve got lots of friends—only too glad to do what they can. See what I mean?”

It is possible that Loraine did, for she suddenly blushed, and to cover her confusion began to talk nervously.

“That’s settled,” she said. “I’m going to help. Nobody’s going to stop me.”

“And so am I, of co

urse,” said Bundle.

They both looked at Jimmy.

“Yes,” he said slowly. “Yes, quite so.”

They looked at him inquiringly.

“I was just wondering,” said Jimmy, “how we were going to begin.”

Nine

PLANS

Jimmy’s words lifted the discussion at once into a more practical sphere.

“All things considered,” he said, “we haven’t got much to go on. In fact, just the words Seven Dials. As a matter of fact I don’t even know exactly where Seven Dials is. But, anyway, we can’t very well comb out the whole of that district, house by house.”

“We could,” said Bundle.

“Well, perhaps we could eventually—though I’m not so sure. I imagine it’s a well-populated area. But it wouldn’t be very subtle.”

The word reminded him of the girl Socks and he smiled.

“Then, of course, there’s the part of the country where Ronny was shot. We could nose around there. But the police are probably doing everything we could do, and doing it much better.”

“What I like about you,” said Bundle sarcastically, “is your cheerful and optimistic disposition.”

“Never mind her, Jimmy,” said Loraine softly. “Go on.”

“Don’t be so impatient,” said Jimmy to Bundle. “All the best sleuths approach a case this way, by eliminating unnecessary and unprofitable investigation. I’m coming now to the third alternative—Gerald’s death. Now that we know it was murder—by the way, you do both believe that, don’t you?”

“Yes,” said Loraine.

“Yes,” said Bundle.

“Good. So do I. Well, it seems to me that there we do stand some faint chance. After all, if Gerry didn’t take the chloral himself, someone must have got into his room and put it there—dissolved it in the glass of water, so that when he woke up he drank it off. And of course left the empty box or bottle or whatever it was. You agree with that?”

“Ye—es,” said Bundle slowly. “But—”

“Wait. And that someone must have been in the house at the time. It couldn’t very well have been someone from outside.”

“No,” agreed Bundle, more readily this time.